Tag Archives: Marie-France Bazzo

| Radio

Marie-France Bazzo leaves Radio-Canada morning show after 19 months

Marie-France Bazzo, the host of ICI Radio-Canada Première’s Montreal radio morning show C’est pas trop tôt, surprised listeners this morning by announcing she was leaving the show because of a disagreement over the “orientation of the show.”

The news has been confirmed by Radio-Canada. It takes effect on April 3.

Bazzo, who was the first woman in the post, succeeding René Homier-Roy in 2013, also hosts Bazzo.tv on Télé-Québec. Before taking the job at Radio-Canada, she was a contributor to Paul Arcand’s morning show on 98.5 FM.

Richard Therrien of Le Soleil says the rumour is Radio-Canada wasn’t happy with the amount of time Bazzo was devoting to this show versus her other projects. That makes sense. We could have a long discussion about Quebec TV and radio hosts who have several regular jobs that you’d think would all be full-time gigs.

UPDATE: Rumours are already circulating about a possible replacement: Former TQS anchor and duo-tang nemesis Jean-Luc Mongrain.

| Montreal, Radio

Marie-France Bazzo to replace René Homier-Roy on Radio-Canada radio

Radio-Canada wasted little time. Hours after René Homier-Roy announced on air that he would not be returning in the fall as host of C’est bien meilleur le matin, the local morning show on CBF-FM (Radio-Canada Première Chaîne), the public broadcaster announced that Marie-France Bazzo, host of Télé-Québec’s Bazzo.tv among other ventures, will succeed him. She had been contributing to the afternoon drive morning show on the station’s main competitor, 98.5FM. That collaboration ended today.

Bazzo is the first woman to take up this particular post at Radio-Canada. There’s already talk that this is some sort of historic appointment, breaking some glass ceiling. But that ceiling is very narrow in scope. She’s not the first female morning host on radio in Quebec, or even in Montreal. Christiane Charette hosted the show that Homier-Roy led into, and Catherine Perrin hosts that show now. Isabelle Maréchal hosts the mid-morning show on 98.5FM. And those shows are Quebec-wide. Nancy Wood hosted the local morning show solo on CBC Radio One in Montreal. And there are plenty of other examples of women hosting radio shows in Quebec and Montreal. Morning shows in Montreal, particularly on music stations, tend to be hosted by teams, which is the main reason I would argue that having a solo female host there hasn’t happened yet.

That said, Bazzo is a solid appointment for this post. She knows her news, has extensive interviewing experience, and commands great respect as a broadcaster.

No worries about Bazzo.tv. The Thursday-night show on Télé-Québec will return in the fall with Bazzo as host.

Bazzo has been added to the list of guests on Tout le monde en parle this Sunday. Homier-Roy will be on Pénélope McQuade next Monday, reports Le Soleil.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post misspelled René Homier-Roy’s name.